Koush updates Mirror, brings screen recording

For some reason screen recording has always been lacking on Android. Some custom ROMs and apps have provided the function, but by and large, root access has been required. When KitKat was announced, Screen Recording was introduced via the SDK, but in Lollipop, new APIs has allowed developers to record the screen on a per app basis. Well know developer Koushik Dutta, or Koush for short, is the first to introduce Screen Record, adding it to his Mirror app, which is currently in Beta.

Mirror is part of a suite of casting apps developed by Koush including AllCast, AllCast Premium, and AllCast Receiver. Not only does Mirror allow the user to record their screen but it allows them to directly “cast” it to another device running AllCast Receiver. Aside from another tablet or phone it could also be an Amazon Fire TV, Ouya, an Android TV stick, or a Google TV. Of note is that while the Chrome browser is listed as supported, Chromebooks are not. Koush has had apps pulled from the Play Store in the past, back when Chromecast was a new technology for using unpublished Chromecast APIs, part of the reason he’s wary of Chromecast support these days.

Koush’s decription states that:

Mirror lets you record a video of your Android screen, or cast it to:

Apple TV

Fire TV

Chrome (not Chromebook due to firewall issues)

other Androids

The app works on devices running KitKat but requires root access, if however you’re running Lollipop, root is not required (both confirmed personally). The future of Android is certainly bright, with this new tech allowing for a great many easily produced How-Tos and demos. You can expect to see a lot of screen recordings in How-To posts here on Ausdroid, as well as on Google Play in the future.

Do you see a use for this new addition to Mirror? Will you use it much, if at all?

Scott Plowman Associate Editor

Scott is our modding guru - he has his finger on the pulse of all things ‘moddable’, pointing us towards all the cutting edge mods hacks that are available. When he’s not gymming it up, or scanning the heck out of Nexus devices, you'll find him on the Ausdroid Podcast.

Outside of Ausdroid, Scott's a health care professional and lecturer at a well known Victorian university.